I LIBRARY OF CONiJRKSS. I 

JUNITE1):8TATES OF AMERICA. | 



NEW SYSTEM 



O F 



picultmc and g^otticulto. 



A TREATISE 



ON THE 



FAILURE OF CROPS, 



DECLINE AND DECAY OF ORCHARDS, 

THE CAUSES THEREOF AND %^HE REMEDIES THEREFOR, 

Founded upon Fifty Years of Experience and ExperwienU by 
% the writer, 

Darius P e i r c e , 
lima, washtenaw county, michigan 

(Post-Officc address, Chelsea, Mich.) 



DETROIT : 

TRIBUNE JOB OFFICE 



1869. 



PKICE, - - - - FIFTY CENTS. 



NEAV SYSTEM 



O F 



pinilte and M0rtimltttct 



A TREATISE 



ON THE 



FAILURE OF CROPS, 

THE 

DECLINE AND DECAY OF OECHAPiDS, 

THE CAUSES THEREOF AND THE' REMEDIES THEREFOR 

Founded upon Fifty Tears of ExiJerience and Experiments by 
\ the writer, 

^^\ 

Darius P e i r c e , 
lima, washtenaw county, michigan 

(Post-Office address, Chelsea, Mich.) 



DETROIT: 

TRIBUNE JOB OFFICE, 

18G9. 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the j'ear 1869, by Darixjs Peirce, in the 

Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the 

Eastern District of Michigan. 






PREFACE, 



It is hardly necessary for the author of this work to 
make any excuses for its publication, since, notwithstanding 
the multiplicity of books and writinojs on Agriculture, Hor- 
ticulture, and Pomology, there is none which seems to touch 
the subject for which this is designed. 

The elementary principles laid down in this work, are 
nothing more than the expression of facts, which experi- 
ments, investigation, and experience have developed, and while 
it will present to the producer, a system highly curious, and 
a subject of great practical interest, it will lead the nat- 
uralist to believe that the laws of Nature," are equally in- 
herent and efficient in a growing frnit tree and other 
vegetation, as they are in the production, growth, and habi- 
tudes of the different species of animals. 

The moral philosopher will see at once that nothing has 
been formed, through the fortuitous concurrence of circum- 
stances, but that the whole vegetable kingdom bears the 
impress of creative agency and design : that the laws of Na- 
ture are as peculiar and distinctive in their formation of 
leaves, and blossoms, and fruits, as they are in any race of an- 
imals that traverse the earth's surface. 



INTRODUCTION, 



Farmers, this work now offered is not a servile compi- 
lation from other writings, but a simple, plain system, drawn 
together from numerous sources, and submitted to tests, and 
trials, and experiments by the author, for years, and he thinks 
he knows whereof he writes. This system presents to you a law 
of Nature, wherein the seed is the seat of life of the whole 
vegetable kingdom. This seed furnishes natural roots which 
are the natural feeders of all trees or plants This nat- 
ural law carries with it its own natural jjenalties. A 
law without a penalty, becomes a mere rule, and is no 
law ; hence. Nature becomes the human teacher in 
making laws. An example of great magnitude, will be found 
in the cereal grains. The seed when placed where Nature 
would place it, near the surface, spreads, grows, and forms a 
large green plant. Another seed, covered deep, will not pro- 
duce a plant at all, but will show two slim, long leaves. Both 
seeds possess equal fecundity and are equally prolific, yet 
the former will show from five to ten tall, full-grown straws 
with large heads, while the latter will show but one short, 
slim straw, with a dwarfed, short, green head. ( In the former 
I have barely placed the common yield. ) Without stopping to 
present to the reader any suggestions relating to the penalties, 
or of submitting any mathematical calculation, the writer 
would simply inquire, how would this statement, if founded 
on facts, affect the granery of the world ? This work informs 
the grain grower, and reveals the astounding facts, that one- 

6 



6 INTR on ucTioisr. 

third of the seed of the cereal grains sown, produces three- 
fourths of all crops now annually raised under our present 
system of cultivation. In this work the facts are made easy 
of solution, and the remedy simple and plain. 

Having spun out this introduction to an inexcusable 
length, and having piven much of the space contained in 
this work to orchards and fruit trees, the writer will close 
this offering with the single regret, that a subject of such 
vast importance to the people, had not found an abler advo- 
cate — one whose perceptive powers were less clouded by age; 
one whose sight was less bedimmed by time; and, finally, one 
who could write with a more pointed pen. 



NEW SYSTEM OF 



CHAPTER 1. 



GENERAL PRINCIPLES. 

Sec. 1. — The evidence that there exists certain natural 
laws which govern the growth, the form, the size, the shape, 
tlie health, and the strength of the whole vegetable king- 
dom seems to be conchisive. 

Sec. 2. — That these natural laws are fixed and cannot be 
altered, amended, or re})ealed, and when obstructed or viola- 
ted will frequently })rodace the most dire calamities to such 
vegetables as these violations happen to fall upon, or are 
applied. 

gEC_ 3, — By this law of Nature, all seeds were to fall on 
the surface of the earth, and there to sprout, vegetate, grow, 
and produce again. 

gEQ 4_ — By this law the seat of life would seem to exist 
rio-ht where the seed sprouted, right where the roots and 
body join, right where the heart terminates, right where the 
hollow in the straw ends, right where the pith ceases, right 
where the roots start down, right where the body, stem, stalk, 
or straw starts up, this being the place from which the sap is 
distributed through the arteries of the tree or plant. 

gEC_ 5 — The seed being the seat of life, the roots are the 
feeders, the body, stem, stalk, or straw are the things fed, 
while during the vegetating process the seed feeds both root 
and body. 

VIOLATIONS — CEREAL GRAINS. 

gEQ_ Q — Nearly all seeds put into the earth, are sowed or 
planted in total disregard of these natural laws, but as 



AGRICULTURE AND HORTICULTURE. 9 

these laws were not known, the consequences were not seen 
and the penalties have remained unfelt. 

Sec. 7. — No seed permanently buried in the ground, so 
that it cannot spread immediately at the surface of the earth 
ever did or ever will produce but one short, slim straw, with 
a dwarfed, short, green head. This appears to be one of 
Nature's laws, and applies to all the small grains alike, or 
nearly so. 

Sec. 8. — We have "practiced a system of the most 
outrageous violations upon our apple orchards, and fruit 
trees generally ; and the violations differ as the trees and 
other vegetables are different, one from an other, and the 
calamities differ accordingly. 

Sec. 9. — All seeds produce one tier of roots and no more 
and it becomes absolutely necessary, that these roots should 
grow large, being the entire feeders of the tree or plant. 
Note : — In all these violations the plant and tree show a second 
tier of roots, or underground suckers, which come out of the body 
of the tree or plant, and not from the seed, and are illegiti- 
mate, unnatural, artificial, and destructive. 

Sec. 10. — In order to make them grow large, the 
seed should be placed where Nature's law would place it, near 
the surface of the ground, where the heat, the light, the 
rains, the dews, will have an immediate effect upon the seeds 
while vegetating, and the subsequent growth of roots. 

Sec. 11. — All other roots growing out of the body, stem 
stock, or straw, are not legitimate roots, but artificial, unnat- 
ural and mere suckers, which come out of the body of the 
tree or plant above the seat of life, and consequently furnish no 
nutriment for the whole tree or plant. 

Sec. 12. — These artificial roots or suckers are pro- 
duced in two ways, the one by burying the seed too deep, the 
other by banking the earth around the body, stem, stock or 
straw. 

Sec. 13. — No healthy or thrifty plant or tree can be 
found which possesses these artificial roots or suckers ; but, as 



10 NEW SYSTEM OF 

they will not grow without earth to grow into, it is difficult 
to determine whether the banking or the roots are most 
destructive. 

Sec, 14. — Cover the seat of life of any tree permanently 
with earthj and the leaves will turn yellow, dwindle in size, 
and the tree will either die, or produce these suckers, and the 
main roots below will decay and dwindle and will not grow. 



AGRICULTURE AND EORTICULTURIi. U 



CHAPTER 2. 



EXPERIMENTS AND DEDUCTIONS. 

Sec. 1. — Take any tree, while the sap flows freely, cut 
or break a root, and let the tree stand a few weeks, then pull 
it up and split it, commencing at the root so cut or broken, 
and following the grains of wood, it will lead you to the end 
of one or more limbs, and you will find a black streak the 
whole length of root, body and limb or limbs, caused by the 
cut or break. 

Sec. 2. — Take any fruit tree, small size for convenience, 
dig down and find any permanent root, cut or break it, and 
it will show the same black streak. The longer it stands the 
darker and plainer the black streak will be, until it becomes 
a black streak of rotten wood, the whole length of root, body 
and limbs. 

Sec. 3. — Go into a forest of timber, cut a root off the 
tallest tree, and its destructive effect will be seen very soon 
by the dead limbs in the top of the tree. 

experiment no. 1. 

Sec. 4. — In the year 1833, I set an orchard of 50 apple 
trees. On account of the location of the Michigan Central Eail- 
road, I removed them seven or eight years after. The trees 
had grown rapidly, and in removing I broke many large roots. 
It could not well have been avoided. I took great care in reset- 
ting, dug deep and large holes, manured with fine manure, 
finished setting according to Hoyle, and they all leaved and 
lived, and stood right there for 15 or more years, but did not 



12 NEW SYSTEM OF 

grow — blossomed occasionally every other year. Some trees 
became entirely barren, and for years showed no blossoms. I 
grew uneasy. They did not look thrifty. I scoured with ashes 
and water, I grafted, pruned, examined and investigated. The 
apples became dwarfed knurly and wormy, the wood-lice cov- 
ered the most of the trees, dead wood appeared in spots on 
southwest side of the body, dead limbs were plenty and 
mossy. I looked the Agricultural papers over, I tried ashes 
and chip-manure, I read of grub worms, of beetles, of borers, 
&c. One man said or seemed to say, I must punch the worms 
in their holes with a gimlet, and then hook their remains out 
Avith a crooked wire. But I found more holes in one tree than 
I could count. 

THE CAUSE. 

Sec. 5. — Some twelve or fifteen years since, I dug down and 
found the true origin and cause of the distress and destruc- 
tion of my trees. In digging I cbanced to light upon the end 
of one of those broken roots, ( broken at the time of remov- 
al .) On splitting this root, I found nothing but a green shell 
of wood. I traced this rotten root and split it through root, 
body, and limbs and found the whole tree to contain a rotten 
mass of decomposed wood, covered by a thin shell of green 
wood, like a sugar coated pill. 

Sec. 6. — I soon commenced and dug out all my trees, 
cutting and taking out armfulls of these knuily, curly roots 
or suckers. I found all the trees with four or live excep- 
tions in the same condition of the one described. I dug all 
the trees out down to the main roots, carefully cutting all 
roots above, and left the earth in a ring around each tree at 
a distance of four feet, exposed the seat of life to the light and 
the heat, cleaned out the earth that was wedged between the 
main roots where they joined the;^ body, exposed the tops 
of the main roots, and swept them clean two and a half feet 
from the tree the first season. The next spring I removed the 
earth to the distance of four or five feet. 

Sec. 7. — All my trees were not alike. I found some more 
advanced in decomposition than others. Some two or three 



AGRICULTURE AND HORTICULTURE. 13 

have cracked open, exposing the rotten wood the whole length 
of root, body and limbs. Others have enclosed the rotten 
wood with a solid body of green wood from five to eight in- 
ches in thickness. From a number of trees the rotten wood 
seems to be badly squeezed. Escaping juice of the rotten wood 
finds vent in cracks or seams, if, indeed, the pressure does not 
open these seams. 

Sec, 8. — The question concerning the breaking of roots 
being the 'Sole cause of the rotten wood contained in the trees 
is placed-beyond the possibility of doubt to my mind. And 
numerous others, who have been engaged for years in experi- 
menting on the same subject, entertain no doubts of its truths. 

Sec. 9. — The efiect of the foregoing experiment has 
resulted in entire success. In digging around my trees, I found 
the roots in all shapes. Most of the main roots had grown 
up towards the surface of the ground, at the seat of life, or 
where the roots joined the body. I found every species of living 
creeping insects nestling in the mouldy, milldewed, slippery, 
slimy mass of decomposed wood. 

Sec. 10. — Some roots not larger than my thumb when 
dug out were as large as my arm in ihe fall. At the seat of 
life the body and roots spread out, and seemed to d ouble in 
size the first summer, the trees took new life, the leaves 
changed color in four weeks and doubled ia size, becoming a 
dark green. The old bark started, the moss rolled off, the 
wood lice moved and fell from many trees the first sum- 
mer. 

Sec. 11. — The most singular part of the whole remains 
untold, viz : that each and every tree that has lived, has 
blossomed and borne fruit without deviation every year, and 
nearly alike. Since they were dug out, there is no every-other- 
year tree in this orchard ; their large roots extend a great dis- 
tance, and they resemble the great platform the forest tree 
stands upon. No plowing has ever been done in this orchard 
since the trees were first set out. 



14 NEW SYSTEM OF 

EXPERIMENT NO. 9. 

Some fifteen years since, I sowed the seed, raised the plants 
and set an Osage orange hedge. 

A pamphlet giving directions accompanied the seed. 
This pamphlet informed me that I must pull up the trees at 
one year old, and cut off the roots to the length of just ten 
inches, and then set in rows. I followed directions, setting half 
a mile or more. In order to make the hedge thicker I hent them 
down, and with hooks driven into the ground fastened in 
them. In the process of hending, they would break and split, 
and on discovering a black streak at the heart, I split a num- 
ber of them, and in every case traced the black streak to the 
place where the root was cut at the time of setting. 

EXPERIMENT NO. 3, 

Nearly thirty years ago, I set an orchard of seventy-five 
pear trees, plowed deep, manured heavy, grafted and budded, 
kept it in high state of cul tivation, kept on manuring and plow- 
ing. In ten years from setting,one-fourth were rotten; in fifteen 
years one-half were rotten, so that they could not stand, and 
nearly half had fallen, and the rest are not worth curing. And 
all this has come from the black streaks made by breaking 
roots with the plow. 

EXPERIMENT NO, 4. 

In cutting a limb I cannot make the black streak run 
down at alL In grafting for the last fifteen or more years, I 
have tried hundreds of experiments, but in no case have I 
succeeded in making a rotten streak of wood run down the 
tree. In girdling, the whole tree will die, the top first. In 
climbing part way up a tree and then girdling it the leaves 
will all wilt above the girdle, but none below. 

EXPERIMENT NO. 5. 

In removing the earth from the basement for a barn, I 
covered the roots of a grove of shade trees, some six inches, 
some a foot or more, with earth. In two years there was not 



AGRICULTURE AND HORTICULTURE. 15 

a live tree nor a green leaf on one of the trees, nor was there 
a single artificial root or sucker to be found. This grove was 
composed of white oak^ yellow oak^ sassafras and hickory. 

GENERAL REMARKS, 

These experiments have been prosecuted by the author, 
for a number of years, and it would be impossible for him to 
condense and describe a tenth part of his investigations, and 
the conclusions he has arrived at. 

Gentle reader, grant leisure to the imagination, and scan 
the vast field before you, the orchards of the continent, and 
perhaps of the world, and ask yourself the question, how 
many orchards there are that have never been plowed, and how 
many trees there are that do not possess these same black 
streaks, or the rotten body emanating from this cause alone. 
Gentle reader, if these statements made contain the elemen- 
tary principles of truth, then the facts and couclusiuns that the 
apple orchards of America are and must be nearly all a rot- 
ten mass of decomposed wood, soul and body, root and 
branch, cannot be doubted nor questioned, when we reflect 
and take into consideration tae facts, that the orchards have 
been plowed frequently, if not annually, and the roots of the 
trees are not only broken and torn from their moorings, the 
seat of life of the tree, but, they are cut into short pieces and 
turned bottom up, according to the science of Agriculture. 
And this is not all, the back furrows are turned against and 
around the body of the tree, burying the stumps of the broken 
roots, and causing the second tier of roots to grow. This same 
doctrine of breaking roots is the doctrine recommended, ad- 
vocated and applied by the great mass of Agriculturalists, 
throughout the States of the Union, and a standing lesson 
for the students of the Agricultural colleges of many states. 



16 NEW SYSTEM OF 



CHAPTER 3 



VIOLATIONS, ETC. 

[ Note : — The reader will soon discover the vast field be- 
fore him, and the magnitude of the subject contained in this 
chapter. ] 

Sec. 1. — By a law of Nature, the wheat kernel falls on 
the surface of the ground, and when placed there, or with a 
slight covering, barely sufficient to protect the seed, it will 
frequently spread out and form a large green plant or plat- 
form, from which I have counted, 20, 30, 60, 70, and some- 
times 100 full grown straws with large heads and each com- 
ing from one kernel. 

violations. 

Sec. 2. — No kernel of wheat, permanently buried, ever 
did, or ever will, produce but one straw — and a short, slim, 
slender straw, and a short, dwarfed green head. 

Sec. 3. — No kernel of wheat buried or covered so that in 
the vegetating process it cannot sjjread right at the kernel, 
and spread on the surface of the ground, ever did, or ever 
will, produce but one slim, sickly, stunted straw, and a 
short green head. 

Sec. 4. — This same law applies to all the small grains 
alike, or nearly so, and affects the corn crops very materially 
in their products, and, while the author of this work ex- 
cludes all root crops, yet, and still, the potato vine will 
grow longer and larger with the eye planted up. Try it! 

Sec. 5. — In all these cases of burial of the grain, you will 



AGRICULTZTRE AND HORTICULTURE. 17 

find the violation accompained by the second tier of roots or 
suckers. 

Sec. 6. — The first sprout of a kernel of wheat is a root. 
From this first root-sprout, and close to the kernel, starts 
a round sprout. As this round sprout grows, it unrolls, and 
leaves make their appearance through the hollow of it. All 
spreading out on the surface, presents to us the appearance 
of a large flat green plant. 

Sec. 7. — No person will assume that this green plant 
should be buried, or, if the seed is buried, this green plant 
would grow at all. If the seed is buried, the hollow sprout 
does not unroll, and the first leaves at the kernel die, and 
two slim, narrow, long leaves, emanating from the centre of 
the round sprout, will make their appearance, at the surface 
of the ground ; and when the straw is formed, there will be a 
joint in it, a little below the surface of the ground, and, from 
this joint, grows a tier of roots, and at the kernel, you wiU 
have another tier of roots, and both these tiers of roots, will 
be very short and fine roots ; presenting a good example of 
the truths laid down in Sec. 9 and 10 of this work. Chapter 1. 

HOW TO EXAMINE WHEAT, OATS, &C, 

Sec. 8 — Having examined and investigated this subject 
for fifteen or twenty years, I would recommend a large knife 
to the reader, and a pail of water. Take these, go to any field, 
cut out and wash the roots at any season of the year, and in 
any field sown you will very soon discover the truths con- 
tained in the statements just written. 

GENERAL REMARKS. 

Perhaps there is no situation in which a person finds a 
subject so difiicult to describe, as the one presented to the 
reader, from the fact of its simplicity, and the ease with 
which the truths can be ascertained. 

Go into any field, and you can then and there find the 
short straw ; dig down, and see for yourself. Gro into any 
field at harvest, and you will see this slim, short straw, shak- 
ing from the butt of the bundle, and slobbering the field. 
3 



18 NEW SYSTEM OF 

The writer of this has taken a knife and pail of water, and 
has cut out, taken out and washed the plant, in all it stages of 
growth ; he has examined the roots from time to time for years, 
from the first appearance of the sprout to the time of harvest, 
and knows that no kernel of grain, buried so that the first 
root cannot move or roll the kernel, while vegetating, or the 
rains wash it out, ever did or ever will produce but one slim, 
stunted straw, with a short green head, later to ripen, remains 
green longer, and that nearly all our grain comes from the 
surface kernels. The person who will examine this subject, 
will see mines of wealth concealed under the thinnest of veils, 
and while all entreaties of the writer may be given to the 
winds, the principles laid down in this work, will live and 
some day flourish. 

One of the most familiar questions of the day is, what 
share of grain sowed is buried two inches or more ? The 
writer cannot answer. Many people lay it at one-half ; some 
one-third; some more or less. The writer believes there is 
double the seed sown necessary. The careless, heedless manner 
of putting in crops is so common, that there is no guide or 
rule which will enable a person to form an opinion. 

Let us go to the bottom of these destructive habits, and 
you will see the seed sower hurrying in his crops. His whole 
object is to bury his seed out of his sight, regardless of con- 
sequences. If he drills, you will find the lower kernels all in a 
row, with their roots twisted, curled and grown into a solid 
nest ; if he sows broad cast, he draws his large heavy drag, 
burying his seed beneath the dirt of traditions, gathered from 
the antidiluvians, accompanied by numerous other transgres- 
sions of the laws of Nature and of Nature's God. 



AGRICULTURE AND HORTICULTURE. 19 



CHAPTER 4. 



f;ORN CROPS. 

Sec. ] — The producer of this grain will gain much informa- 
tion by planting a few kernels deep, and alike number near thp 
surface of the ground. If he will actually perform it, and not 
talk, and write, and then neglect doing it, he will see the shal- 
low-planted corn come up first, grow faster, stalks larger, and 
with more joints in a stalk. It will be ahead of the deep 
planted corn the whole season, grow taller, ripen earlier, pro- 
duce larger ears, and the ears will be filled better — gen- 
erally to the end. 

Sec. 2. — The kind of Indian corn, known as dent corn, will 
depreciate in the latitude of Detroit and run out, or become 
more flinty and will lose its dent form. In my experiments, all 
the difference between the different species I have noticed is, 
while the dent begins to harden or glaze next the cob, the 
yellow or flint begins to harden or glaze on the outside of 
the kernel. 

EXPERIMENT NO. 1. 

Sec. 3. — In the year 1855 or 1856, 1 planted a five-acre lot; 
it was the second crop. I plowed once, dragged level, marked 
the land three and a half feet each way, by drawing a chain ; 
planted three and a half feet one way, and just double that, 
or near twenty inches, the other one-half the field, four ker- 
nels in a hill ; the other half three ; no hill was covered thicker 
than a hoe blade in the field or, from an 8 th to a 16th of 
an inch of earth was put on top of the seed. 



20 NEW SYSTEM OF 

The common rules of cultivation were not necessary in 
this field; no cultivating or plowing was done after planting; 
no horse ever entered the field ; the writer with one hand, 
spent a day perhaps going through the corn, and pulling the 
weeds, which were few ; the land was clean and very fertile ; 
the seed planted was of the white dent variety. 

Could an accurate account and description of the growth 
of this corn be given, I know it would be entirely incompre- 
hensible to many people, I shall only enter a few notes touch- 
ing the growth and yield. 

I paid $2 per acre for cutting and shocking, and the 
person employed by laboring early and late received nearly 
fifty cents per day. Much of the corn stood eleven feet high, 
many stalks had eighteen joints in a stalk, and some were 
carried many miles as curiosities, and a bushel basket would 
have held every small and soft ear in the field, including all 
ears not filled to the end. 

From one measured acre of land, the shocks numbered 
one hundred and sixty-seven, and each shock yielded or ex- 
ceeded two bushels of ears of corn. The whole field must have 
yielded 160 bushels of shelled corn to the acre. 

In an examination of the roots of this corn, many were 
traced 7 feet, and in no place did we find these roots to exceed 
two inches below the surface of the ground, while the ground 
appeared to be full of these long roots. So full was the ground 
of these large roots crossing and recrossing each other, that 
it seemed as though no horse could have drawn a cultivator 
through the field at this season of the year. 

Reader, we all know and acknowledge the necessity and 
utility of destroying weeds in the corn, but great care should 
be observed in using the cultivator too late in the season. 
In the season following, I planted the same field in the same 
manner and obtained the same growth or larger, but a 
hurricane and hail storm damaged my crop. 

TUKNirS. 

In sowing turnips, drag level, sow seed, and drive a flock 
of sheep over the ground. I have tried it with success, but 



AGRICULTURE AND HORTICULTURE. 21 

have never used the sheep's foot to other seed, but should 
like to see the experiment tried. 

GENERAL REMARKS. 

All seeds placed in the ground will he affected by the 
elementary principles laid down in the first chapter of this 
work. From what course has this theory of burying our seed 
come. The acorn falls on the surface of the ground; the apple 
falls and rots on the surface of the ground; our grains 
all in a state of nature did the same. Where did the theory of 
deep planting come from ? From habit ? If so, I ask, why has 
the science of agriculture no depth to recommend, no rule of 
depth to govern themselves in putting their seed into the 
ground ? They have no rule. 

INSECTS. 

There is a doctrine published and proclaimed through 
the country and generally credited, believed and promul- 
gated, that insects were created and formed for the purpose 
of attacking, eating, digesting, consuming and destroying 
sound trees, sound timber, sound wood, sound fruit trees, 
and the fruits thereof; sound blossoms, sound grain?, either 
green or ripe, sound seed, either in the ground or on the 
ground; sound roots of trees, standing or lying, and that the 
whole vegetable world are barely suffered to exist and grow 
through the kind leniency of these in sectiverous, carniverous, 
gormandizing, destroying, flying, scenting, creeping, crawling 
smelling tribes. 

The writer asks the poor privilege of dissenting from the 
expressed and oft repeated views of gentlemen of high 
standing in this Agricultural, Horticultural world on this 
subject, and, feeling desirous of avoiding repetitions as far as 
possible, he will leave the reader to gather the views of the 
writer from other chapters. 

Note. — The writer believes and will insist on the doctrine, 
that sound trees will produce sound fruit, as a generally laid 
down principle, and that sound blossoms and sound plants are 
seldom attacked by insects ; that as a general thing we kill 



22 NEW SYSTEM OF 

the tree or plant, and then the insect takes possession ; that 
a rotten-hearted tree will produce diseased fruit, and a 
deep covered seed will produce a diseased plant, &c. 



AGRICULTURE AND HORZJ CULTURE. 2S 



CHAPTER 5 



Having developed, written, and in a partial manner demon- 
strated to the reader the existence of a law of nature, and 
several experiments all going to prove the same, and on tak- 
ing a survey of the whole field the writer has arrived at 
the following conclusions, viz : 

First. — That a tree is a tree anywhere, and an apple 
tree forms no exception to the rule. 

Second. — That the apple tree is an artificial tree, audits 
fruit is artificial, having been taken from its wild state; con- 
sequently, should be cultivated like other trees. 

Third. — That no tree can live and flourish unless its 
first main roots, where they join the body, are above the 
ground ; that a second tier of roots is death to any tree; and 
disease, disaster and destruction to all crops whose seeds fall 
on top of the ground in their natural state. 

Fourth, — That no grubworm, beetle, borer, ant, cat- 
terpillar, curculio, or fly, or bug ever attacked, eat, en- 
tered or meddled with sound timber, sound trees, sound blos- 
soms, or sound grains, or the plants thereof. 

Fifth. — That plowing orchards causes three deaths— break- 
ing roots, burying the seat of life, and causing the second 
tier of roots to grow ; that the three combined are slow death, 
but terrible, cruel, and sure. 

Sec. 2. — Reader my first conclusion is before you. Can 
any person say an apple tree forms an exception to other 
trees ? If it is a tree why not treat it like other trees ? History 
informs us that apple trees bore apples in the Grarden of Eden. 



24 NEW SYSTEM OF 

Even Webster's dictionary, says our apple trees are supposed 
to have originated from the English crab, that in its wild 
state its roots grew on the surface of the earth the same as 
a forest tree. 

Sec. 3. — My seoon I conclusion consists in the changes 
made, and mankind generally believe that any tree or plant 
that will submit to a transfer from the forest to the open 
field or garden, leaves its wild nature, and people call the 
tree or plant thus removed " civilized "or " tamed." Usually, 
they proceed to improve its fruit, its seed, as well as the plant, 
tree itself It is thus the apple tree stands, an artificial. 
Speaking, through this law of nature: "You have improved 
my fruits and made them grow large. I furnish you a large 
variety of the most delicious fruits. I once had roots that 
fed and nourished my body. In the woods my roots obtained 
this nourishment from the rich surface ; now, I am not allowed 
to grow roots nearer the surface than the plow runs." The 
tree, thus speaking, ffxlls back on the laws that governed 
its origin, and speaks in a manner, not to be misunderstood : 
'' Give me roots, or eat worms !" 

My third conclusion is that no tree can live and flourish 
whose roots are not above the ground at the seat oilife- 
The above is one of the first principles laid down in this 
work and a very important one. The second clause speaks 
of the second tier of roots, &c. Wc have seen that the seed 
should be on top of the ground, and we have seen that the seed is 
the seat of life. This places the main roots and seat of life 
right where Nature's laws place all roots. The tap root is not 
a necessary feeder, not but what it furnishes some sort of 
nourishment from the depths of the cold earth to which it 
descends. Still, it is evident from millions of mouths, attached 
to the radicles of the surface roots, that the nutriment on 
which the tree's existence depends comes from that source. 

WHEAT, EYE, OATS, ETC. 

That there is more seed used than is necessary may be 
seen and ascertained by examining. Any kernel placed on 



AGRICULTURE AND HORTICULTURE. 25 

the surface of the ground will show a large green'plant, with 
broad leaves, and will cover quite a space of ground, while 
the deeply covered seed will not produce a plant, but two 
slim, long leaves. The truth is, we kill the seed before it lives; 
the difference between the kinds of covering given to the seed, 
is so marked, in all fields, as to preclude the necessity of even 
scrutiny. If the seed is sown on the surface of the ground 
where your plants can spread, it becomes a large plant; it 
obtains health, strength, stability and size. 

INSECTS. 

4th CONCLUSION. — While writing in experiment No. 1, I 
spoke of finding every species of living, creeping insect. It 
was here that I found the grubworm, the beetle, the borer, 
the ant, the curculio, and the caterpillar, in and around 
the bodies of the trees of numerous orchards I have had 
occasion to examine, I have usually found^ where the back- 
furrow had been piled around the body of the tree, year after 
year, their nests, their camping grounds, generally in and 
about the body I found a mouldy, mildewed, slippeiy, slimy, 
mass of decomposed wood, filled with these vipers, their camps, 
their fo . tifications, their tombs, their dead, their sepulchres, 
their old, their halt, their blind, their young, their eggs, 
their larvge. 

Reader, these insects are not guilty of such enormous 
crimes as is commonly laid to their charge. They are a neces- 
sary evil, if indeed they are an evil at all. These slandered 
insects were made, created, produced for the express purpose 
of devouring and destroying all the woody and animal carrion 
of the earth. The ofials of all putrid matter is their Eden, 
their home. Search manure heaps, there you will find them. 
In your barn yards they are plenty, your chip piles are filled 
with them, your rich soils always furnish an abundance of 
insects, your sickly, dying, decomposed, gangrene fruit trees, 
furnish, rear, and breed millions and myriads of these buzzing, 
flying, creeping, crawling diatribes. 

Reader, go into your wheat field. There you will find the 
midge, the wevil, the Hessian fly, and a critical examina- 



26 NEW SYSTEM CF 

tion for facts, will disclose and confirm the truths before 
written. You will find the short, slim, sickly, half-decomposed 
plant, and green heads, to be filled with these insects. We hear 
great complaints all over the country ; some complain of wire 
worms, some the grub worm. Gentlemen, please dig down and 
see how deep your seed was covered ; see if the yellow leaves 
were not caused by a sickly plant. 

It is a fact that in all my examinations I find the midge, 
the wevil and the fly, in the short green heads first. Then by 
the laws of increase and multiplication, starvation ensues. 
Then they will sweep every thing of the vegetable kind. Ex- 
amples of this kind are not uncommon in the West with the 
grasshopper. 

THE PLOW. 

Fifth conclusion. — Eeader, my two last conclusions are 
so intimately connected that I shall treat the subject as one. 
Plowing orchards causes three deaths to trees, viz : 

First death — Breaking roots is always followed by a black 
heart of rotten wood, the whole length of body, limbs and 
roots. 

Second death — Piling the earth aroiind the body of the 
tree, as laid down in Sec. lO.of G-eneral Principles, 1st. Chap- 
ter ; also, see experiment number 5, 2d Chapter. 

Third death — Causing a second tier of roots to grow by 
banking or turning the back furrow against and around the 
tree. 

Reader, the root of a tree is its sheet anchor, its feeder. 
Can you feed a calf at any other place than its mouth ? Is the 
root of a tree to be considered the root of all evil ? 

Lo ! the plowman enters the great American orchard, ar- 
rayed in all the paraphernalia made necessary for the occasion, 
with his team and his plow, his cutter, his jointer, and at 
once proceeds according to order. He cuts all roots into short 
pieces and turns them bottom up in a scientific manner. He 
piles the earth around the trees ; the black streaks which al- 
ways follow the breaking of roots, run through the whole 



AGRICULTURE AND HORTICULTURE. 27 

body and limbs of the tree ; the wood soon begins to decay 
and rots from bottom to top ; decomposed wood with all its 
attractions for insects follows ; the grubworm enters ; the ant 
takes possession ; the caterpillar seeks it ; the curculio follows 
in the wake of his predecessors. The borer scents the woody 
carrion afar off. The atmosphere is infected, the blossom is 
tainted, the honey bee deserts it, the flies blow it, the maggot 
eats his way into the core of the apple, the people eat the 
apple, or drink the cider, and pick the skins from their 
teeth. 

[Note : — The writer is not ignorant of the fact, that there 
are certain worms, like the cutworm, and other insects like the 
striped bug, and a class of caterpillars whose subsistence is 
the leaves of vegetables — like the silkworm, and perhaps 
other insects. ] 



28 NEW SYSTEM OF 



CllArXER 6. 



THE CURE FOR FRUIT TREES. 

Sec, 1. — Enter your orchard at any time after the frost is out 
of the ground ( in the spring of the year is the best time) ; 
remove the earth from and around the tree to the distance of 
three feet the first year; cut all small knurly roots clean from 
the body of the tree, remove turf, sprouts, and every thing 
down to the main roots; remove the earth wedged between 
the main roots and next to the body; leave the bottom of the 
main roots resting on the earth. The seat of life is right where 
the main roots join the body ; this should be exposed and 
made clean. The second year remove the earth five or six feet 
from the body. I leave the earth in a ring, others do not, 
but cart it off. 

Sec. 2. — Care should be taken to cover the same you ex- 
posed, the winter following the exposure. The covering should 
be made before hard freezing, and should be removed in the 
spring following, and should not consist of straw on account 
of mice. 

Sec. 3. — The covering need not be repeated after the first 
year, the object being to prevent the freezing and cracking 
of the monstrous growth of new wood, which usually follows 
the process described above. 

Sec. 4. — An example of this kind exists within one mile 
of the home of the writer of this work, and in the orchard 
of the Hon. Kodney Ackley. The trees cracked from the 
freezino;. 



AGRICULTURE AND HORTICULTURE. 29 

Sec. 5. — The reader must exercise judgment in the dis- 
tance the roots should be exposed, as large and old trees 
will bear the removal farther than trees of smaller size. In 
your proceedings council the laws of Nature. Examine the 
great platform the forest tree stands upon. 

GENERAL REMARKS. 

Sec. 6. — Header, after you have relieved your trees from 
their burthens, please say unto them, " Thou mayest grow, 
and flourish in accordance with the laws of thy nature ; 
I planted thee for the purpose of having thee to grow, 
I buried thy roots on purpose to have them to grow, 
therefore know ye I will never break thy/oots more." 

Sec. 7. —Please say unto the plow, " Thou hast done thy 
work thoroughly, thou hast been a faithful servant, thou hast 
cut all the roots of my fruit trees into short pieces, and 
turned them under in a scientific manner, thou hast not only 
plowed, buL laou hast cross plowed these roots, thou hast 
piled the earth around my ^trees according to the rules and 
laws of agriculture to my entire satisfaction." 

Sec. 8. — "Therefore, in consideration of thy faithful servi- 
ces I give and grant leave of absence unto thee from my orch- 
ard forever. In testimony hereof Mr. Harrow will ever stand 
as a swift witness." 

Sec, 9. — Gentle reader, I would say to the insects through- 
out all the orchard, '• Thou hast multiplied excessively, thou 
hast fulfilled the mission for which thou wast created, thou 
hast scented, come hither, enjoyed and destroyed all the 
animal and vegetable carrion, in accordance with the laws of 
thy creation and tastes." 

Sec. 10. — "Thou hast created a great commotion among 
the human family, nay, among the great men, causing them 
to be divided in their opinions concerning the purposes and 
intentions of thy creation." 

Sec. 11. — "Whereas thou art accused of eating, attack- 
ing, gnawing, and boring, and destroying the fruit trees and 



30 NEW SYSTEM OF 

the fruits thereof, throughout all the land, therefore I would 
say unto them, assemble thy forces, gather thy strength, and 
hold thy last universal and high carnival in consideration of 
the crimes thou hast committed, for there will be famine and 
hunger, and weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth 
among thy different sects." 

WHEAT, ETC, — THE CURE FOR WHEAT AND A'.L SMALL GRAINS. 

Sec. 12. — "Plow deep while sluggards sleep, and you shall 
have corn to sell and to keep," says Poor Richard, The 
remedy in this case consists entirely in the covering ; still, it 
is necessary that the field should be mellow down deep, as the 
roots are larger and run deeper when the kernel has but one 
set of roots, and those near the surface. 

Sec. 13. — Remember the law of Nature, that all seeds 
produce but one tier of roots, and those roots placed near the 
surface of the ground, where they receive the immediate 
heat of the sun, the dews of the evening, and the warm 
showers of the morning ; and any and all other roots, do not 
come from the seed, but must come from the body, stock or 
straw, and are forced from the straw by the burying of the 
seed, and are artificial, unnatural, and destructive. 

Sec. 14. — The covering should be very light, and as near- 
ly equal on the whole seed as it can be, and for that purpose 
the ground should be rolled before sowing, if sowed broad- 
cast ; then use a very light drag, with short teeth — two inches 
long is enough. Railroad spikes make good teeth. 

Sec, 15, — I trust the reader will bear with an experiment 
or two, as some backwoodsman may find an example that 
may be of service to him : Then, first, in all timbered 
lands it follows that in the first crops there is no plow used, 
and frequently not halt the seed covered. The wheat al- 
ways covers the stumps, with the tallest of wheat. The only 
reason I ever heard assigned was, it was " new land," I never 
was satisfied with that answer. 



AGRICULTURE AND HORTICULTURE. 31 

AN " EX POST FACTO " EXPERIMENT. 

Sec. 16. — Nearly forty years since I purchased an old 
worn-out farm, three miles South of Palmyra, of fifty acres of 
land, known as Indian Hill. The soil was sandy, old, worn- 
out, poor. The former occupant obtained a scanty subsis- 
tence for his family. I plowed and sowed thirty-five acres of 
winter wheat ; the first crop paid for the farm, at 70 cents 
per bushel. I occupied this place seven years, and during 
this time paid for 158 acres of land, all joined, built house, 
barn, &c., &c. 

THE SECRET OF SUCCESS. 

Sec. 17. — Through poverty, penury, and want, after plow- 
ing the ground, I took two light poles, notched the ends to- 
gether, put in a cross piece ; with two inch auger bored holes, 
with smaller auger for teeth, made the teeth of wood, and in 
two hours' time had a drag all complete ; the drag when fin- 
ished a man of comra'm strength could carry half a mile 
with ease. 

Sec. 18. — This drag, in leveling my Vind before sowing, I 
put a weight upon, and after leveling (a thing I always did ), 
I removed the weight from the drag, an.l ic wou.rt run on the 
surface of this yellow sand, while the points of the teeth did 
not enter the sand to exceed a half inch. 

Gentle reader, during the seven years, from first to last, 
I used this drag or a similar one, and to the astonishment of 
all, myself included, 1 never raised a crop of grain on that 
farm that yielded less than twenty bushels to the acre. 

Sec. 19. — This farm lies in the north part of Ontario 
County, in the State of New York, and in the town of Man- 
chester. In 1832, I removed to Michigan, borrowed a large 
heavy drag and nearly lost two or three crops, so ignorant 
was I of the cause of my success in the State of New 
York. 

Sec. 20. — On coming to Michigan, I brought all the pride 
of a new comer. Success had always followed my efforts. To 



32 NEW SrSTEJI OF 

be thus baffled in a new country on the very soil of my own 
choosing did not set well ; so, after various hints from my 
better half, I concluded to try the wooden drag again, ard made 
one with forty teeth, much heavier than formerly, bui my land 
was new with heavy sod, 1 succeeded w/lhout knowing the 
cause. G-entle reader, I kept on succeeding, my land became 
mellow and a chance occurred. I took a large drag with long 
iron teeth, and dragged a few acres through the middle of a 
large field. This did the work both for your humble servant, 
and the wheat, and the drag too. I received scarce half a 
crop from this strip ot land of all lengths of straw. Some 
green short heads never did ripen, but the writer of this 
did. 

CORN. 

Sec. 21. — Remember the seed grows but one tier of roots. 
They always grow large and run deep into the ground. The 
stock, straw, or body will always grow proportioned to the 
root. 

Sec. 22 — If the reader will plant one hill deep and one 
hill shallow, and will watch them, he will see the shallow- 
planted hill sprout first, and both root and sprout will be 
larger and will grow faster, and be ahead of the other, the 
whole season ; the stalk will be larger, with more joints in the 
stalk, it will ripen earlier, with larger ears, and the ears gen- 
erally filled to the end of the cob. For further description 
the reader is referred to experiment No. 1, in Chap. 4, 3d 
Sec. There he will find a full description of how the writer 
planted and covered in 1855, and he will here add, follows 
the same laws, the same rules here laid down for all crops, and 
considers them good enough. 

NOTE. 

The reader will please take notice that no land is so poor 
or worn out that under this system he can not raise good crops. 
The wheat will grow taller and the heads all of a height and 
large, but it is important that the roots of all crops should 



AGRICULTURE AND HORTICULTURE. 33 

have a mellow, well-pulverized soil. The hardest red clay 
made fine will produce good wheat, and all crops will be ma- 
terially benefited by following this system. 

Sec. 23. — One of the most common objections raised to 
shallow planting or light covering of the seed, consists in the 
supposition that the earth at seeding time will be dry, and 
the seed will not sprout or gr,)\v. The answer is plain. It is 
heat and moisture that sprouts all seeds. We frequently have 
sprouted wheat standing in the field and also in the shock. 
Did it require cold, moist earth to sprout that wheat .^ It is 
usually known that the heat of the sun dries the top sur- 
face down during the day time, and the moisture rises during 
the night. This usually sprouts all seeds, but. as errors some- 
times occur, I take the liberty here to state, that I deem it 
important that all seeds should be covered so as to protect 
them from the scorching rays of the sun, still as light as will 
answer for that purpose. I am already asked, is not this a 
violation of Nature's law.? I answer. No. It is not probable 
that seeds in their primitive state were as prolific as at present; 
that each seed was not endowed with the same power of 
production as at present, or that perhaps the scj robing rays 
of an equatorial sun, suffered as many seeds to vegetate 
and grow as at present. There are some farmers who plant 
deeper and uncoverat hoeing; usually, there is no difficulty. I 
believe the seed is more likely to vegetate near the surface of 
the ground. 
5 



34 NEW SYSTEM OF 



CHAPTER 7 



GENERAL REMARKS. 

The writer feels confident of the truths laid down in the 
First Chapter ot this work, especially on the principle of 
breaking roots to growing trees, having tried numerous exper- 
iments in a variety of ways. He has taken young [leaeh trees, 
whose wood is very tender, cut a root, and in a few days 
found the same streaks or symptoms of decay commencing; 
and while experimenting in the young timber, he has cut a 
root to a number of trees. Some of these he has let stand, 
while a number have been cut and split open, exposing the 
commencement of decay in small poles the whole length, while 
those standing in each and every case show dead limbs in the 
top. 

Sec. 2. — The writer is satisfied that the sap passes 
through the arteries or grains of timber always up, but never 
down; that there is something in the formations of the grains 
or arteries of all timber which prevents it. The sap carries the 
disease from an injured root the whole length of the tallest 
tree, but never down that where a tree is severed by the axe. 
The body will run a little sap immediately adjoining the 
wound, while the stump, being ftd by the roots, will pour it 
cut for weeks. 

Sec. 3. — Let us take a more extensive view of the sub- 
ject under consideration. 

A hurricane sweeps through the forest, withing, bending 
and bowing the timber, racking it from its foundation, up- 



AGRICULTURE AND HORTxCULTURE. 35 

turning some, loosening and breaking thousands of roots. 
The same black streaks follow these breaks and the effects of 
these winds can be seen and known by the dead limbs and 
trees in all forests of timber. Water at the root, will show 
dead wood in the tops first. Wherever a mill pond has been 
raised, flowing timber, its effects can be seen in the dead tops 
of the trees. Hollow trees originate from the same cause. 
The heart becomes rotten, from the break of roots; the rotten 
wood falls and leaves the shell. 

Sec. 4. — It will be readily inferred from the foregoing 
that no injury will accrue to trees from pruning or grafting; 
still, the writer thinks extremes, like cutting large limbs, or in 
grafting, cutting the whole top at once, should be avoided — 
that it will check the flow of sap. 

Sec. 5. — It will require judgment, scrutiny, perhaps, to 
distinguish between the suckers and the main roots of large 
trees, or in old orchards. The reader will find the main roots 
dwarfed, small and weak, but tlese suckers should be cut if 
the main roots are alive. If these suckers have killed the main 
roots, then the tree is dead. 

Sec. 6. — That there is a class of trees through the 
country unprovided for in this work, is certain. In the examin- 
ations of orchards, I have found a few of the class above 
mentioned; how extensive they may be, the writer is not in- 
formed. This class of trees originated from a piece of a root, 
with a graft stuck in the end or side, and then set in a nursery 
and sold as trees. These possess none of the formations which 
constitute a tree, they have no regular set of roots, no seat 
of life, and are only a temporary thing, short lived, will not 
last long, or grow large. They are only a substitute for a tree 
and should be avoided by all purchasers. The best tree ever 
grown, come from the seed, was never removed or plowed. 
The roots of a tree are its sheet anchor and should run on top 
of the ground, and be protected. 

Sec. 7. — The system commended to the people is a 
retreat from former usage. It places the tree in a state of re- 



36 NEW SYSTElf OF 

covery; it does not extract the rotten heart, and supply it with 
sound wood. Barren trees will bear fruit under this system, 
and I have never witnessed an exception, nor heard it from 
others. 

WHEAT, RYE, OATS, BARLEY, CORN. 

Sec. 8. — From experience I think it safe to say, that 
the wheat, oats, rye and barley, and corn crops, will be in- 
creased in their products, one-third, by following the direc- 
tions laid down in this work, and will be of better quality, 
with less labor for team at least. 

general remarks. 

Gentle reader, this work is not an imaginary work, but 
practical, written by a farmer for the farmers. It is no 
patent right, but founded on Nature's laws which can not be 
patented. Does this work contain exaggerations.^ I think 
not, if the re|)orts of the Farmers' Club are in any manner to 
be relied on. The disaster to fruits and the orchards of the 
whole country must be similar. This scientific body of men, 
situated in the great city of New York, havti correspond- 
ents in every state of the Union, or nearly so. The written 
and oral information from these correspondents when- 
ever the subject is touched upon, all speak of the sickly, 
diseased, and dying state of the fruit trees, and the loss of 
the fruits, and very similar reports may be found in any 
Aoricultural journal through the whole country. 

QUOTATIONS FROM THE PRESS. 

Solon Robinson, one of the members of this Scientific 
body, says in the N. Y. Tribune : " All through the Eastern 
States, great pains have been taken. They have fertilized, 
cultivated, planted new orchards, but so far from finding a 
remedy their trees are decaying and dying everywhere, and 
seem doomed ;" and adds, " this is the most important sub- 
ject, that can engage the American farmer." Q. W. South- 
wick of Madison, Indiana, says : " This is the oldest settled 
part of the state and formeily had plenty of apples, but for 



AGRICULTURE AND HORTICULTURE. Zl 

the last few years, orchards have uniformly failed." Mr. 
Peters recommends draining. Mr. Carpenter saya draining will 
not do, for "I have tried it," and charges it to adverse atmos- 
pheric influences and insects. Dr. J. V. C. Smith says: "It is 
old-fashioned industry that has died out," and recommends 
keeping swine in the orchard. Mr. Geddes says : " Our or- 
chards in central New York formerly died out, hut as we have 
replanted on other ground we have good crops." Dr. Trimhle 
adds, " corn and wheat are dying out, as much as apple trees • 
give them fertile soil, and cultivation, and if the East wind 
hurts them, stop it by building stone walls." S. E. Todd 
says pruning trees excessively is very injurious. A. M. Powell 
of the Anti-Slavery Standard, knows of a successful orchard in 
Columbia Co., N. Y., which himself and father cured by ex- 
terminating the borers and caterpillars ; cultivated and 
seeded down. Mr. Quiun adds, "give apple trees the same 
care you do corn and potatoes, cultivate the same, and they 
will bear;" says pruning is necessary. 

In the N. Y. Tribune of Jan. 27th, Mr. Wolvington of 
Milton, Pa., asks, "how shall I have plenty of ap- 
ples ? " Daniel Cornell of Buckingham, Iowa, says he 
planted 12 trees 20 inches deep, 4 years old, which never 
blossomed and never will. J. D. Hicks of Blair Co., Indiana, 
asks of the Club, what he shall do with an old orchard — 
asks if he had not better cut it down. They recommend 
plowing it thoroughly. A. Jackson of Willow Grove, Dela- 
ware, says he has planted five orchards in his time. Each 
has borne only 3 or 4 years, and died ; thinks it came from 
grafting. Another gent, says the insects will soon drive us 
across the Mississippi, and we shall be calling on the Rocky 
Mountains for fruit. 

This list of names might be multiplied indefinitely if the 
subject required it. The writer deems the above sufficient 
to show the distracted state of public opinion as to the cause, 
and that the destruction does exist, and is extensive. 

Reader, these extracts are very imperfect and contracted, 
and only present the glimmerings of an inexpressible gloom 



88 NEW SYSTEM OF 

that pervades all classes of fruit growers. These quotations 
come through the press and from the representative men of 
the oldest, the youngest, and the vast area of country con- 
tained in the Central States of the Union. Nearly all unite 
in the facts, that the fruit trees and the fruits thereof, are 
on the wane, and as the fruit trees increase, the disaster in- 
creases. All remedies recommended and applied have proved a 
fallacy. Under one treatment the tree shows temporary pros- 
perity, and then shows it was only a revival before death. Go 
where we will, we behold the fruit wormy, foul and filthy, 
and the tree will present the appearance of a patient in the 
last stages of measles or the small pox, showing the pits or 
pustules in the bark. Gentle reader, be not deceived; it is 
consumption of the tubercular kind; it is death with a tem- 
porary resurrection perhaps, for there is no tree so hard to 
kill, there is no tree that clings to life with more tenacity 
than the apple tree. The writer of this does not suppose the 
disease of our fruit trees to have sprung from slight visionary or 
transient causes, but that the tree has been I roken at its foun- 
tain, its seat of life, and the disease is real, and no visionary, 
temporary prescription will be of any permanent use. Its roots 
are broken, its feeders are severed. How would a cow feed in 
the coral blossoms of clover with her mouth chopped off. 
Gentle reader, all natural trees have but one set of roots, and 
these ruuts come out of the body at or near the surface of 
the ground. You will find a healthy, sound iree largest at the 
seat of life. The tree begins to spread several feet high, 
and grows larger towards the ground. Do your fruit trees 
resemble these trees ? Do the large roots come out of the body 
above ground ? are there any large roots in sight ? are there 
any roots in sight at all in your apple orchard ? Please com- 
pare the natural with the artificial tree, and see which suffers 
by comparison. The truth is, the earth to a certain depth 
should be filled with roots in all orchards of any age or size, 
and these roots should originate from the seed and be pro - 
tected. The reader will very soon learn that there is 
meaning in the word '^ root," and that any damage done to the 



AGRICULTURE AND HORTICULTURE. 39 

root will, soon show itself. The writer has taken 
some trouble to find what was going on in the Horticultural 
world, and finds no change recommended, while the calamities 
seem to be on the increase ; the same old track and practice 
is weekly, daily, and monthly recommended by all the agri- 
cultural papers. You behold the fruic growers setting new 
orchards on the same old plan, you see him filling the places 
made vacant in his old orchard by cultivation, you see him 
sorting his fruits for the market, you see his family clinging 
to their fruit with all that is filial and affectionate, while the 
scrubby trees, clothed in the yellow and sable garments of 
decay and death, present a ghastly appearance. 

In examinations made in wheat, I have generally found 
the length of a straw shortened according to the depth the 
seed was covered. The dee|)er the seed was covered the shorter 
and finer the straw would be, and this rule seemed to apply 
to the length of the head. Corn also presents the same ap- 
pearance. 

I find also that if the seed of a stalk of corn, three or four 
inches high, be broken off, or detached, the stalk will not pro- 
duce an ear of corn. Many seeds of different kinds detached 
from the plant at a certain age will not produce ; others will 
depreciate in quality. I think this is the cause of chess in 
wheat. 

I will now present a most singular witness bearing upon 
the truths laid down in this work. The witness is Dr. Halleck 
of the American Institute Farmers' Club. The quotation is 
taken from the N. Y. Tribune of Nov. 25, 1868, and is 
in the following words : 

" The apple tree, as we know, is artificial, and its fruit is 
artificial. In its natural state it bears fruit the same as the 
oak bears acorns. Taking it from its natural state, it is subject 
to influences we do not understand. There is certainly a de- 
crease of the apple crop in the Hudson river country. J. 
W. Staples, Newburg, Orange Co., N. Y., asks the Club if the 
leaves turning brown and falling off, will injure the fruit ? 
The Chair stated of course, if the leaves perish the fruit must. 
Dr. Trimble says it is probably caused by the long rains, 



40 NEW SrSTL'M OF 

and then adds, ' but this is only a confession of our ig- 
norance.'" 

These quotations come from two substantial members of 
the Farmers' Chib — the seat of scientific discussion and ex- 
amination on all subjects connected with fruit trees or their 
fruits. They tell us these questions are not well understood, 
that they remain a mystery unsolved. The next most natural 
question would arise, where shall we go for information ? 
The writer would most respectfully invite all who have or 
ever expect to have any interest in fruit trees, to go to the 
roots of your trees tor the information, cut a root and in a 
short time it will answer the question, and solve the problem 
to the entire satisfaction of all concerned. 

Notwithstanding the writer in the fore part of this work 
excluded all mot crops, still, and nevertheless, if eventually, it 
should be established, demonstrated and proved that the po- 
tato rot, decline and decay, has come from our universal 
system of hilling, then most assuredly the fault will not be 
chargeable to the writer. For, suppose the multitude of 
small roots emanating from the vine above the seed should 
cause a diseased vine, this of course would jiccount for the 
numerous insects and bugs found among the vines and stand 
charged and indicted by many writers as guilty of the whole 
destruction. As the writer needs more evidence he submits 
the question. 

GENERAL REMARKS. 

Farmers, from the extracts just submitted it is evident 
that our fruit trees are decaying and dying everywhere and 
are doomed. And as their fruits are growing less in quantity 
and more foul in quality, we behold our improved acres in- 
creasing, while our crops are diminishing in an alarming de- 
gree, according to the statistics of the Agricultural Bureau 
at Washington ; and, wlien we ask for information respecting 
the cause or causes of the decline, we are informed of our 
simplicity. If we call for investigation, we are reminded of onr 
ignorance. If we gras^) the pen with a view of inquiry we 
are informed our composition is bad, our language is vulgar. 



AGRICULTURE AND HORTICULTURE. 41 

The author expects no exemption from these general charges 
but demands a fair trial of the principles laid down in this 
work, and is willing to trust the result. The writer does 
not claim to be the original discoverer of all the parts and 
pieces contained in this abridgement, but has gathered, ex- 
perimented, and tried them. Some he has improved upon, 
while others he has rejected as worthless. The most impor- 
tant parts he has hastily endeavoured to condense and pres- 
ent to the people. 

Note: — If the reader should fail to believe that the 
first cause of rust on wheat comes from the souring- of the 
milk contained in the berry, please to bite the kernel. 
6 



THE PROTEST. 



Tlie Fruit Trees protested, both the Peach aod the Plum : 
" Our Ixxlies arc rotten ; from our bark oozes gum ; 
Our roots are all broken, and plowed like a tallow — 
Thus banked and thus buried we can but be iiollow.'" 

The Apple Tree spoke, as though it felt some like fightiiig : 
" I have stood all the frosts, the thunder and lightning— 
You plowed off my roots, and called it no sin, 
So eat wormy Apples and pick out the skins ! " 

The Wheat then came forward, as it was said. 
And cried to the people: " I furnish you bread ! 
By the law^s of my nature, and laws of my birth, 
My seed used to tall on top of the earth ! " 

The Oats and the Barley both spoke without fear: 
" Our grain feeds your horses ; the barley makes beer. 
If you cover our seed so that it can't spread, 
It will grow but one straw and a very short head!'''' 

The Corn spoke at last, and thus "spoke to the Wheat : 
" You boast of your bread — don't I make the meat? 
With two tiers of roots my slim stalks they will bend — 
I will give you green ears, with a cob at the end " 

AND so THE END. 

Darius Peirce. 
43 



